What are your six favourite fiction books (or authors) ?

[Crudblud]

There are only really two authors whose fiction I read, enjoy, and revisit enough to consider favourites. These are Thomas Pynchon and Émile Zola. From Pynchon my favourites are Gravity's Rainbow, Mason & Dixon, and Inherent Vice; from Zola Nana, Germinal, and L'Assommoir.

In terms of fiction generally, and excluding the above selections:

• Faulkner - The Sound and the Fury
• Rulfo - Pedro Páramo
• Balzac - Lost Illusions
• Swift - Gulliver's Travels
• Cervantes - Don Quixote

I can't think of a sixth that has impressed itself upon me so insistently, so five will have to do.

[Karl Henning]

My relationship with books is not anywhere near as close as was true before my stroke, so this thread has served as a much-appreciated reminder of books and authors I loved erewhile, but which/who have dropped off my radar. Thus, I suddenly find myself jonesing for some Richard Brautigan. 

[Mandryka]

The Wind in the Willows (Grahame)
Winnie The Pooh (Milne)
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Rowling)
The Lord of the Rings (Tolkien)
Voyage au Bout de la Nuit (Celine)
A Dance to the Music of Time (Powell)
The Desire and the Pursuit of the Whole (Rolfe)

[Christo]

Some favourite Dutch novels (i.e. "Flemish, Belgian" novels not included, which are a world on its own). I see now that relatively many were written in, or heavily conditioned by, WW II – and also that I like some titles very much.
1783 Rhijnvis Feith, Julia
1813 Willem Bilderdijk, Kort verhaal van eene aanmerklijke luchtreis, en nieuwe planeetontdekking, uit het Russisch vertaald ("A remarkable space travel" [to the moon, by the "Dutch Goethe," 42 years earlier than Jules Verne].
1839 Hildebrand, Camera Obscura
1860 Multatuli, Max Havelaar, of De Koffij-veilingen der Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij ("Max Havelaar, or The Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company," author from Java)
1887 Lodewijk van Deyssel, Een liefde ("A love")
1888 Louis Couperus, Eline Vere
1892 Jac van Looy, Gekken ("Madmen")
1894 Marcellus Emants, Een nagelaten bekentenis ("A bequeathed confession")
1900 Frederik van Eeden, Van de koele meren des doods ("About the cool lakes of death")
1904 Arthur van Schendel, Een zwerver verliefd. Een zwerver verdwaald ("A tramp in love. A drifter lost")
1925 Herman de Man, Het wassende water ("The rising flood")
1930 Albert Helman, Serenitas (author of Surinam)
1936 Godfried Bomans, Pieter Bas
1938 F. Bordewijk, Karakter ("Character")
1939 A. den Doolaard, De herberg der zeven zigeuners ("The Inn of the Seven Gypsies")
1943 Etty Hillesum, Het verstoorde leven ("The disrupted life")
1944 Anne Frank, Het Achterhuis ("Diary," author from Germany)
1944 David Koker, Dagboek geschreven te Vught ("Diary written at camp Vught")
1945 Floris Bakels, Verbeelding als wapen ("Imagination as weapon")
1947 Hella Haasse, Oeroeg (author from Indonesia)
1948 Anna Blaman, Eenzaam avontuur ("Lonely Adventure")
1949 Simon Vestdijk, De kellner en de levenden ("The waiter and the living")
1953 J.B. Charles, Volg het spoor terug ("Follow the trace back")
1954 Bé Nijenhuis, Laatste wagon ("Last wagon")
1956 Theun de Vries, Het meisje met het rode haar ("The girl with the red hair")
1957 J. Presser, De nacht der Girondijnen ("NIght of the Girondins")
1957 Marga Minco, Het bittere kruid. Een kleine kroniek ("The bitter herb. A small chronicle")
1958 Belcampo, Het grote gebeuren ("The big thing," author from Riessn)
1962 Heere Heeresma, Een dagje naar het strand ("A short day at the beach")
1965 Jan Wolkers, Terug naar Oegstgeest ("Back to Oegstgeest")
1966 Willem Frederik Hermans, Nooit meer slapen ("Never sleep again")
1972 Gerard Reve, De taal der liefde ("The language of love")
1972 Klaas J. Popma, Het paradijs is dichtbij ("Paradise is near")
1973 Frank Martinus Arion, Dubbelspel ("Double play, "author of Surinam)
1984 Hellema, Joab
1984 Maarten 't Hart, Het roer kan nog zesmaal om ("The helm can be turned six more times")
1986 Frans Kellendonk, Mystiek lichaam ("Mystic body")
1986 Leon de Winter, Kaplan
1988 Boeli van Leeuwen, Het teken van Jona ("The sign of Jonah," author of Curaçao)
1988 Tip Marugg, De morgen loeit weer aan ("The morning is bellowing again," author of Curaçao)
1989 Hermine de Graaf, Stella Klein
1989 Koos van Zomeren, Het scheepsorkest ("The ship's orchestra").
1989 Rob Tuankotta, Also Spricht Tuankotta ("Thus Speakes Tuankotta")
1990 Jan Siebelink, De overkant van de rivier ("The other side of the river")
1992 Harry Mulish, De ontdekking van de hemel ("The Discovery of Heaven")
1993 Tessa de Loo, De tweeling (1993, "Twins")
1996 Abdelkader Benali, Bruiloft aan zee ("Wedding at the beach," author from Morocco)
1997 Marcel Möring, In Babylon
1998 Moses Isewaga, Abessijnse kronieken ("Abessinian chronicles," author from Uganda)
1999 Thomas Rosenboom, Publieke werken ("Public work")
2000 Vonne van der Meer, Eilandgasten ("Island guests")
2001 Louis Kruger, Wederkomst ("Second Coming," author from South-Africa)
2004 Willem Jan Otten, Specht en Zoon ("Specht and Son")
2006 Arnon Grunberg, Tirza
2009 Franca Treur, Dorsvloer vol confetti ("Threshing-floor full of confetti")
2012 Oek de Jong, Pier en oceaan ("Pier and ocean")
2012 Tommy Wieringa, Dit zijn de namen ("These are the names")
2014 Alexander Münninghof, De stamhouder ("The progenitor," author from Poland)
2014 Kader Abdollah, Papegaai vloog over de IJssel ("Parrot flew over the IJssel river," author from Afghanistan)
2018 Arie Kok, Zoete zee ("Sweet sea")
2018 Esther Gerritsen, De trooster ("The consoler")
2018 Johan Herrenberg, Nederhalfrond ("Lower hemisphere," the author is a GMG member)

[ritter]

That's new definition of "six", Christo! 

[Florestan]

That's new definition of "six", Christo! 

Sixty-two books, if I counted right. Ten Sets of Six or Six Sets of Ten, that is.

[Christo]

The interesting but off-topic discussion has been moved here. I have called the new thread "Lower Saxon". If @Christo or @Florestan think another title is more apropiarte, please let me know via PM.

This note will be removed in 24 hours or so.

Many thanks, Rafael. With every Important Word I tapped on Low Saxon reality on the ground ('Lower' is also okayish, but 'Saxon' is a typical 19th century misnomer for what was/is the lingua franca of the North and Baltic region from 1200 to the present) to teach our Vlach-with-Latin-temperament one or two things about the Northern Barbarians, I felt the hot breath on my neck. From moderators with furrowed brows, I'm glad you got us out of our thorny position. Andrei and I can now argue as usual about Calvin's acid-sour Marxist-Leninism and the attempts of non-Romans to utter, well.
I am deleting this post again. :-)

[Christo]

Sixty-two books, if I counted right. Ten Sets of Six or Six Sets of Ten, that is.

I had to skip some Low Saxons, sorry.

[Karl Henning]

I probably ought to have included The Sot-Weed Factor in my list. John Barth died last year, and I knew nothing of it? Somehow, I've decided it's time for me to re-read Giles Goat-Boy.

[DaveF]

Winnie The Pooh (Milne)
The Desire and the Pursuit of the Whole (Rolfe)

Ah, Winnie The Pooh and Hadrian VII - together at last! (Well, they do have one thing in common: they have the same middle name ("The")).

No derision intended - Pooh is quite high on my list, too - doesn't make the final cut, although I do find the end of The House at Pooh Corner, where CR is explaining about going off to school in a terribly understated and English way, very moving, especially given what we know about Milne's actual son.

My own list:

Little Dorrit
Light in August (Faulkner)
Ulysses
The Midnight Folk (John Masefield)
Lanark (Alasdair Gray), and
Powell's 12 volumes, of course

[Florestan]

'Serious'

Stendhal
Turgenev
Dickens
Tolstoy
Flaubert
Dostoevsky
Thomas Mann
Hermann Hesse
Alessandro Manzoni
Cervantes

'Light'

Alexandre Dumas
Jules Verne
Eugene Sue
Paul Feval
Arthur Conan Doyle
Agatha Christie
David Lodge
Arturo Perez Reverte
Carlos Ruiz Zafon

[Christo]

'Serious'

In that case, my 'most favourite' authors, three of them won the Nobel Prize for Literature:

Dante Alighieri (Florence)
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Saxe-Weimar)
Fyodor Dostoevsky (Russia)
Lev Tolstoy (Russia)
Thomas Mann (Germany)
Willem Elsschot (Belgium)
Konstantin Paustovsky (USSR)
Czesław Miłosz (Poland)
Vasily Grossman (USSR)
William Golding (UK)
Jaan Kross (Estonia)
Amoz Oz (Israël)
Stephan Hertmans (Belgium)
Marilynne Robinson (US of A)
David Grossman (Israël)
Marcel Möring (Madalmaad)
Jon Fosse (Norway)

[hopefullytrusting]

In that case, my 'most favourite' authors, three of them won the Nobel Prize for Literature:

Dante Alighieri (Florence)
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Saxe-Weimar)
Fyodor Dostoevsky (Russia)
Lev Tolstoy (Russia)
Thomas Mann (Germany)
Willem Elsschot (Belgium)
Konstantin Paustovsky (USSR)
Czesław Miłosz (Poland)
Vasily Grossman (USSR)
William Golding (UK)
Jaan Kross (Estonia)
Amoz Oz (Israël)
Stephan Hertmans (Belgium)
Marilynne Robinson (US of A)
David Grossman (Israël)
Marcel Möring (Madalmaad)
Jon Fosse (Norway)

I wonder what is meant by serious, especially on a forum like this? Are there non-serious composers or writers?

I will say that every published person I've run into seems quite serious about what they are doing.

[Christo]

I wonder what is meant by serious, especially on a forum like this? Are there non-serious composers or writers?

I will say that every published person I've run into seems quite serious about what they are doing.

There's only about 8 billion people around, there must be someone who isn't dead serious. 

[hopefullytrusting]

There's only about 8 billion people around, there must be someone who isn't dead serious. 

No doubt, I just suspect such a person wouldn't be published - there's a certain level of arrogance required to publish something where others might read it.